Japan court rules against decommissioning of Hokkaido nuclear power plant -NHK

TOKYO (Reuters) - A district court in Hokkaido, northern Japan, ruled on Tuesday that local nuclear power plants should not restart, but dismissed local residents' demand that the plants be decommissioned, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The plaintiffs have said the plants' anti-disaster measures do not take into consideration the possibility of major earthquakes despite the presence of active faults, while the operator, Hokkaido Electric Power, has denied the existence of active faults, according to NHK.

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Kim Coghill)